There are four processes involved in assembling a product, and these processes can be performed in any order. The management wants to test each order to determine which is the least time-consuming. How many different orders will have to be tested?

Question

Mathematics

Darryl Carson

31 May, 15:14

There are four processes involved in assembling a product, and these processes can be performed in any order. The management wants to test each order to determine which is the least time-consuming. How many different orders will have to be tested?

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Sparky · Answer 1

Step-by-step explanation:

The number of ways 4 processes can be arranged is given by the number of permutations of 4 elements in 4 different positions (order of the process), then

number of ways = number of permutations of 4 elements = 4! = 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 24

Since the first process that occupies the processing line can be in any of the 4 positions, but then the second one can be in any of the 3 remaining positions (since the first process had already occupied one position), the third can choose 2 ... and so on.